One evening I was strapping my daughter into her car seat. With a toy in her hand I attempted to seamlessly get her arms through the straps by quickly moving the prized possession from one hand to the other. Apparently this was not a hit as she scowled at me and said in perfect contest, ‘You’re really starting to piss me off.’” (Mother of the Year: Heidi)

Some of you may have noticed the killer ad in the sidebar of the Cool Mom Guide Blog for the book “Mother of the Year, The Adventures & Misadventures of Parenthood“. I recently also got a copy of this book to read for myself and immediately got excited about writing this review.

Mother of the Year is an entertaining collection of 76 humorous stories from mothers, fathers, and grandparents who’ve survived embarrassing potty moments, road trips gone bad, school mishaps, bedroom blunders, and other parenting situations.

It’s a quick, simple read because it’s not long stories.  If you’re having a particularly rough day or just allowed your toddler to eat the dog food you know is in his mouth you can feel better knowing you’re not alone.  Mother of the Year is there for you to reassure you that yes, there is chaos and disorder in this wonderful world of parenting, but when you look back on them, you’ve just gotta laugh. (more…)

When Jenna McCarthy’s book, The Parent Trip: From High Heels and Parties to Highchairs and Potties came my way I was eager to get started reading.   Not only do I appreciate a good read but before this, all we had were the celebrities, Doctors and the ‘What to Expect’ series bringing us the same material over and over.

Then we have the parenting JOURNALS.  There are hundreds of them and they’re all exactly the same.  Write your thoughts, enter possible baby names here…what we as expecting mothers really need to expect is “Did I get those hemorrhoid’s in the first or second trimester last time?” and this book combines both Jenna’s journey into parenthood and provides a humorous journal section WAY more relevant to the entries I had filled out when I was pregnant!

I have a confession to make.  For YEARS, I’ve been wanting to write a book about my journey to parenthood and pregnancy because I read every parenting book and wrote in every journal available throughout both of my pregnancies and was SO let down by the content. (more…)

I can’t say enough about how wonderful Nintendo is.  This company has found a way to improve nearly every facet of my life.  From my 60 pound weight loss using the Wii Fit to expanding my repertoire in the kitchen with the help from Personal Trainer: Cooking.

Now they’re taking it one step further and have introduced Personal Trainer: Math, new software for the Nintendo DS^â„¢ that provides a fun and rewarding way for people to improve their basic math abilities.

“Personal Trainer: Math provides a fun antidote for math anxiety,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “People can keep their math skills sharp while tracking their progress every day to see how they improve.”

When I first got this, I thought it’d be perfect for my almost 4 year old to help him learn the basics of Math.  He’s still a little too young to do this on his own, but since receiving Personal Trainer: Math, both my husband and I have worked with Jacob to teach him the basics of addition and subtraction through playing this game on our Nintendo DS.

I decided to try this game for myself, since I’m absolutely terrible at Math and hear that activities like these keep the mind sharp as a person ages.  Since I’m about to hit the ripe old age of 32, I thought I’d better get cracking and stimulate the parts of my brain I just don’t use on a daily basis (mainly, 2/3 of it he he he).

I played Personal Trainer: Math for over an hour and had to force myself to put it down so I could go to bed!  I started with the basic tests and worked my way up.  Let me tell you this, folks, this game can be used for kids just starting to learn Math (with help from their parents) all the way to the graduate students looking to test themselves on elaborate multiplication tables and calculation ladders.

According to Nintendo, a new survey, conducted by Wakefield Research for Nintendo, confirms that math anxiety is alive and well among U.S. kids. In fact, of 400 children surveyed, one in five believe that they are more likely to grow up to become a professional athlete, actor or singer than they are to get A’s and B’s in math next year. Other results of the survey conducted Dec. 12-23, 2008, include:

• More than one-third of kids surveyed say that math is their most difficult subject.
• Nearly one-third of kids have very negative feelings about math: 18 percent called it “boring,” while 13 percent actually called it “torture.”
• 86 percent of parents surveyed say that math is important to their careers, even though more than half of them admitted they thought they’d never need the math they learned in school.

Personal Trainer: Math includes 40 fast-paced exercises, from basic addition and multiplication to more extensive multiplication tables and calculation ladders. Daily math drills keep skills sharp, while attendance records provide ways for users to see how they improve week to week and month to month. The Nintendo DS touch screen interface allows users to input their answers quickly and easily. Using wireless DS Download Play, up to 16 players can compete to finish their problems with the fastest time, even if only one player has a game card.

Every night since I got pregnant with my first, we’ve read to him.  When I was pregnant, Ryan would rub cocoa butter on my tummy and read him “Goodnight Moon” (I know, he’s awesome).  Since his birth, we alternate putting him to bed at night but one thing remains consistent, he always gets a book.

Whatever books we read, he always memorizes them after a few readings.  The books, while we love them all, can get monotonous.  That’s why I could hardly contain my excitement when I was given A Duck In New York City, Dream Songs and Night Songs-from Belgium to Brazil and Down At The Sea Hotel to review.

The Secret Mountain describes itself as “The Secret Mountain is dedicated to the creation of children’s books, videos and audio recordings of the highest quality. Our main focus is to produce and publish stories and music that encompass the talents of songwriters, storytellers, singers, illustrators and animation artists alike.” (more…)

A short time ago, I picked up a copy of best-selling Christian author Dannah Gresh’s book, Secret Keeper Girl. This isn’t my usual type of reading, since this book series is geared toward young girls ages 8-12, but I love to read and if there’s a book in front of me, I pick it up.

It reminded me of when I was young and loved the Babysitters Club books.  It was a quick, easy read and had a wonderful moral lesson.  An overview of the book follows: (more…)